Fundraising with Phones

Marty Stone loves fundraising. If you want to get him excited just mention fundraising and he’ll talk your ear off about it. In fact, when Marty was the Finance Director for the DSCC during the 1990 election cycle he developed their first telemarketing program. Stones’ Phones is still innovating in fundraising by utilizing phone technology.

Fundraising Telephone Town Halls

There’s a reason candidates and organization leaders spend so much of their time asking for money: they’re in the best position to make “the ask.” With our Fundraising Telephone Town Halls, we take your campaign or organization’s best asset and deploy it on a massive scale that feels like a mix between a massive conference call and a Telethon. We’ve successfully run events raising money from both prospecting and re-solicit lists for organizations and political campaigns. The key to a successful event is the script and timing of “the ask.”

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FUNDRAISING WITH PHONES CASE STUDIES

Elizabeth Warren 2012 Senate Campaign

connecting a candidate directly to her supporters

Elizabeth Warren was a fundraising powerhouse and wanted to make sure her grassroots donors knew how appreciative she was of their support. Most donors gave through her website after joining the campaign’s e-mail list, but as the negative stories increase...

Elizabeth Warren 2012 Senate Campaign

connecting a candidate directly to her supporters

Elizabeth Warren was a fundraising powerhouse and wanted to make sure her grassroots donors knew how appreciative she was of their support. Most donors gave through her website after joining the campaign’s e-mail list, but as the negative stories increased, the Warren Campaign and Stones’ Phones wanted to create an even stronger bond between the candidate and the donor base so that they felt more invested in the campaign by connecting the candidate directly to her supporters.

As a result of our Telephone Town Hall, Elizabeth Warren established a deeper connection with her donors who ended up giving $41 million over the course of the campaign. Equally important for the Warren campaign, we were also able to turn those donors into campaign volunteers.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Raising awareness and funds through telephone town halls

In late 2012 and early 2013, we used Telephone Town Halls to raise awareness and funds for PETA. After a June Telephone Town Hall, PETA followed up with participants on the call and raised $55,000 in donations. By August, the donations totaled over $91,00...

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Raising awareness and funds through telephone town halls

In late 2012 and early 2013, we used Telephone Town Halls to raise awareness and funds for PETA. After a June Telephone Town Hall, PETA followed up with participants on the call and raised $55,000 in donations. By August, the donations totaled over $91,000. However, these numbers only tell part of the story. The atmosphere of a Telephone Town Hall allowed donors to feel like they were truly part of the organization and crucial to its success, which increased donations and led to a better relationship between the organization and its donors.

Equality Florida 2011

It’ll Get Better: a New Way to Grow

With Presidential primaries, workers rights and a stuttering economy dominating office conversations, Equality Florida was looking for a way to reach out to existing members and modeled likely LGBT supporters to inform and fundraise in support of the LGBT...

Equality Florida 2011

It’ll Get Better: a New Way to Grow

With Presidential primaries, workers rights and a stuttering economy dominating office conversations, Equality Florida was looking for a way to reach out to existing members and modeled likely LGBT supporters to inform and fundraise in support of the LGBT issues facing Floridians. From adoption laws to bullying, Equality Florida needed a format to reach these important potential supporters and let them know that the fight for LGBT rights was still thriving in Florida and needed their charitable donations. With important legislation on the horizon and a slew of impressive wins from 2011, the leadership at Equality Florida was looking to remain connected and get the message out. Central to their goals was outreach to new supporters to turn them into members and create a new donor base to help sustain the Equality Florida fight into 2012.

To accomplish these goals Stones’ Phones held a Telephone Town Hall hosted by Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith targeted at modeled likely LGBT supporters. The event introduced the organization to potential members and donors who were not on a direct mail donor list and had never been asked to give before. After the event, a telephone fundraising firm called through the list of households who participated and asked them to contribute to Equality Florida. The results of that program were striking:

The overall average contribution was $64.52, and the average contribution was highest — $71.32 — among people who had stayed on for 10 minutes or longer.

Most importantly, 70% of the money raised came from just 13% of the participants, all of whom participated in the Telephone Town Hall for more than 20 minutes.

Overall, Equality Florida gained 43 new members on the first round of follow up. These donors were completely new to the organization and were not on any donor list, but because of Equality Florida’s Telephone Town Hall outreach, they had become active, donating members of Equality Florida.